grunt-tdd

It is difficult to get going with TDD. There are a lot of presentations on how to write tests, but really, it is not understanding how to write tests that prevents you from doing TDD, it is the process. First of all it has to be easy to set up your test environment and even more important, you need automatic feedback when writing tests. It should not take you out of the process of implementing code, but naturally be a part of it.

Grunt-tdd ideally runs on your second monitor, in a browser window. When you write your tests it will automatically refresh. It will also refresh when you start implementing your code. This automatic refresh will let you easily jump between your test-file and implemention-file, keeping you inside your IDE.

The essence

It is a PROCESS

It is a UNIT testing reporter

Supports Buster, Mocha and Jasmine

Supports AngularJS unit tests

Supports sinon.js (stubbing, spies and fake XHR)

Runs both browser and node tests and displays the result in your browser

Hit SPACEBAR to toggle collapsing of tests, only showing the ones that give error

All your test files are found on the dropdown top right

Run f.ex. grunt tdd:browser --runAll to run all tests in terminal

Deps

npm install grunt-contrib-watch

Important! Due to watching a lot of files for changes when writing tests it is needed to increase MacOSX default open file limit, which is very low by default. Create/Edit your ~/.bash_profile file and add the following line: ulimit -S -n 2048 (or higher).

Configuration

In your Gruntfile.js:

module.exports=function(grunt){

grunt.initConfig({

tdd:{

// NODE CONFIG

node:{

files:{

sources:['server/src/**/*.js'],// Where your application files are located

libs:[],// Any general libs needed to be loaded, will be loaded from your node_modules folder

tests:['server/tests/**/*-test.js']// Where your tests are located

},

options:{

node:true,// Set to true if testing node code

runner:'jasmine',// jasmine, mocha or buster

expect:true// Use the expect.js library for assertions

}

},

// BROWSER CONFIG

browser:{

files:{

sources:['client/src/**/*.js'],// Where your application files are located

libs:[// Libs loaded in order

'client/libs/jquery.js',

'client/libs/underscore.js',

'client/libs/backbone.js'],

tests:['client/tests/**/*-test.js']// Where your tests are located

},

options:{

runner:'buster',// jasmine, mocha or buster

expect:true,// Use the expect.js library for assertions

sinon:true// For spies, stubs and fake XHR

}

},

// REQUIREJS CONFIG

browser2:{

files:{

sources:['client/src/**/*.js'],// Where your application files are located

libs:[// Libs loaded in order

'client/libs/jquery.js',

'client/libs/underscore.js',

'client/libs/backbone.js'],

tests:['client/tests/**/*-test.js']// Where your tests are located

},

options:{

runner:'mocha',// jasmine, mocha or buster

expect:true// Use the expect.js library for assertions

requirejs:{

baseUrl:'client/'

}

}

}

}

});

grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-tdd');

}

Get going

First time

Choose your test runner. Buster, mocha or jasmine

I recommend using expect as assertion tool (expect.js)

Configure requirejs if needed

When you start developing

Run the task with grunt tdd:#PROFILE# (#PROFILE# is the name of your task profile. With the examples above it would be: grunt tdd:node, grunt tdd:browser or grunt tdd:browser2)